Nuno Álvares Pereira was born in Santarém in 1360 and died in Lisbon 71 years later. He was the illegitimate son of a Catholic friar. He soon entered the court and was armed knight when he was only thirteen. At sixteen he got married, after performing a great military action against the Castilians that were surrounding Lisbon. In the following years, he continued to be famous, either in military actions, or through the upright attitudes he defended with his strong personality.
 
In 1383, the recently nominated chairman and defender of the kingdom, D. João, Master of the Order of  Aviz, who had been his friend ever since they were children, called him to his Government, when he was only twenty-three years old. When D. João was proclaimed king, two years later, he soon  nominated Nuno as the Supreme Commander of the Kingdom. Performing his duty, he conquered back Minho, won the battles of Aljubarrota and Valverde and continued to give many samples of his warlike genius and undeniable courage.
 
When he was thirty-three, he was considered the richest man in the kingdom. He started sharing the lands he had been given with his fellow soldiers. During the following years, he showed himself to be a good man. He protected and took care of the humble and poor, and shared his assets with his family, monks, friends and those who were in need, until he had nothing left.
 
He helped D. João with the education of his children – Duarte, Pedro, Henrique, João and Fernando – who respected him a lot. They were fascinated by him, specially the oldest one, who used to keep him company all day long, eagerly trying to learn the magnificent lessons of his life. D. Nuno went with the Infants D. Duarte and D. Henrique during the first Portuguese incursion to Africa, to conquer Ceuta. They had then the basic conditions for Portugal to leave the chaotic situation in which it was immerged, and assume another dimension in the next two centuries.
 
However, D. Nuno was tired of the battlefields, the political intrigues, the worldly things and the glories of this life. When he was sixty-three, he entered definitively a monastery, becoming a Carmelite friar. The people of Lisbon, who recognised his kindness, called him Saint Supreme Commander.
 
He became a widower at the age of twenty-seven, and after that no one ever knew of any affairs with other women, although he suffered several pressures and solicitations. He was known for his honesty and modesty, and he was said to have helped many sick people to recover their health.
 
Mário Domingues in A Vida Gloriosa do Condestável (The glorious life of the Supreme Commander) says that D. Nuno spoke about having had visions, “such as in Aljubarrota, when he saw his banner surrounded by flying pidgeons“, or when he “spent time talking movingly to Mary, Jesus’s mother”. Oliveira Martins in A Vida de Nun’Álvares (The Life of Nun’Álvares), quotes the document that proposes his canonization in 1674: “In the old chronicles and authentic manuscripts, it is said that he has brought to life eleven dead”. With the exaggerations that are common in the judgements made centuries later, D. Nuno’s qualities have been exalted.
 
He was such an important historic figure that, even today, when the expression “supreme commander” is used, we immediately think about D. Nuno Álvares Pereira.
 
Supreme commander, according to the dictionary, was the general leader of the army, and he accompanied the king and sat at his right. But the expression was also used to refer to the governor of each state or region of the kingdom. The Supreme Commander was, above all, a tachnician. He might not have great social importance, but he had to be very competent and honest and have a great capacity for leadership.
 
A Supreme Commander is a character that we still need today. People who can assume the difficulties of a small country, fighting to win new battles of independence and to create conditions that will develop a new era.
 
Supreme commander or commanders. Good men, competent and honest, who can keep themselves away from political intrigues, games played behind the scenes, worldly passions and easy vanities, and follow noble examples like D. Nuno Ávares Pereira, defending, without personal interest, the higher interests of their country and its different regions. 
 
 

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